Doctors say Big 12's Monster Energy partnership goes too far

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A group of doctors and scientists has petitioned the Big 12 Conference and the the NCAA to pause the Big 12’s big new sponsorship rollout with Monster Energy on the basis that energy drinks are a health risk to children.

The group has sent letters to the leadership of the Big 12 and NCAA but said it hasn’t received a response.

The Big 12 announced a new “entitlement” partnership with Monster Energy in July, which is set to include the energy drink company’s logo next to the Big 12’s logo on player jerseys, football fields and basketball courts. Several other schools and college players previously have done separate sponsorship deals with energy drink companies, including Celsius and Red Bull.

But the scope of the Big 12 deal with Monster Energy is one reason the group says it is singling out the Big 12.

“The reason for focusing on the Big 12 is primarily the scale and demographics of its audience,” said John Higgins, a sports cardiologist with the Houston Rockets and Rice Athletics who is part of the group. “Big 12 games can reach roughly 10–18 million viewers per weekend, with particularly strong exposure among younger fans. That makes the conference an especially important environment to examine when considering the marketing and consumption of energy drinks among young people.”

Higgins notes the group’s focus is not to criticize or target a particular brand or to restrict what adults can consume. It is instead focused on the marketing and promotion of these products to children and adolescents, who are more vulnerable to the effects of these highly caffeinated beverages. The group’s letters to the Big 12 and NCAA cite the deaths of three teenagers with cardiac events linked to energy-drink consumption.

Based on similar health risks for children, several governments outside the U.S. also outlaw the sale of such products to those under 18 or 16, including in Norway, the United Kingdom (in 2027) and Quebec, Canada. The U.S. has no such age restriction. The NCAA also prohibits schools from directly providing energy drinks to athletes because caffeine is a banned NCAA stimulant that could trigger a positive drug test if consumed in high-enough quantities.

In a recent letter sent to the Big 12’s board of directors chairman Doug Girod, the group asked whether an institution followed by millions of children should lend the credibility of college athletics to “the youth-visible promotion of a stimulant.”

Doctors and scientists made three requests to Big 12

The group made three requests in the letter to Girod, who is the chancellor at Kansas. The letter was shared with USA TODAY Sports.

• It asked to pause the youth-facing activation of the sponsorship, including branding on player uniforms, fields, courts, student sections, and conference-controlled media likely to reach minors.
• It wants to commission an independent health review, including pediatrics and cardiovascular medicine.
• It also asked to bring the matter to the Big 12 board before this branding becomes embedded across football and basketball.

The Big 12 provided a statement to USA TODAY Sports when asked about the petition from this group, which lists support from more than 20 doctors or scientists from various universities and medical schools, including at UTHealth Houston, Harvard and the University of Connecticut.  

Many have researched the subject previously. Two of the members also wrote letters to Girod as parents and alumni of BYU, a Big 12 school operated by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. BYU’s honor code says to abstain from caffeinated beverages, coffee and tea. BYU’s dining code also said it won’t sell products that list green tea or coffee extracts on their ingredient statement, which also are common in energy drinks.

“The energy drink category is not new to collegiate athletics,” the Big 12 said in a statement. “Category leaders in the space continue to be active and aggressive in seeking opportunities to partner with and engage college sports fans.”

Energy drink deals have proliferated in college sports

Monster Energy issued a statement after being contacted about this matter by USA TODAY Sports.

"Mainstream energy drinks have been marketed worldwide for more than 30 years and more than 100 billion energy drinks have been sold and safely consumed globally," the statement said. "The ingredients in Monster Energy and other mainstream energy drinks — which include caffeine, B vitamins, and other functional ingredients — are found in a broad range of familiar food products that have a long history of safe consumption. Monster Energy contains about half the caffeine found in a similarly sized coffee-house coffee."

The company said it was proud to partner with the Big 12 and noted leading consumer brands have partnered with colleges for years.

The Big 12’s deal with Monster Energy is worth about $20 million annually, according to Sports Business Journal. Such energy deals have proliferated across college sports in recent years for two big reasons — money and exposure. BYU basketballs star AJ Dybantsa had an endorsement deal with Red Bull while in college. Celsius has had partnerships with Oregon, Texas A&M, Washington, Colorado and others, including with then-Oregon quarterback Bo Nix.

It’s an attractive deal for each side. The energy drink companies like marketing to college sports fans and students. The Big 12 and others like the money they bring in return. In the Big 12’s case, the league has fallen into a distant fourth place in revenue among the Power Four conferences at $610.9 million for fiscal 2025,  half of the Big Ten’s $1.47 billion.

NCAA stance on energy drink advertising

To help quench the thirst for more money across all leagues, the NCAA also recently removed a previous ban it placed on advertising from energy drink brands during NCAA championship events, including its marquee basketball tournaments. The removal of the ban helped lead to the expansion of the basketball tournaments from 68 to 76 teams, because it allowed more advertising to flow toward the television companies that are paying to televise the added games.

The NCAA once even killed a proposal from Five-Hour Energy to title-sponsor the International Bowl in Toronto, leading that bowl game to go out of business.

Times have changed, but this group of doctors and scientists is asking to take it back a step and proceed with caution.

In response to an inquiry about the petition from USA TODAY Sports, the NCAA noted its rules and policies are driven by member schools and leagues, not the NCAA staff in the national office. The NCAA is no longer in the business of restricting energy-drink advertising because of that.

“The NCAA membership is responsible for making rules and regulations, which the national office interprets and enforces for the membership,” the NCAA said in a statement. “If members want to make or change a policy, they can do so through the governance process.”

Follow reporter Brent Schrotenboer @Schrotenboer. Email: bschrotenb@usatoday.com

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Doctors say Big 12's Monster Energy partnership goes too far

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